I hate to admit this, but I really like a serial killer. Don’t think I’m a sicko, though, because he’s fictional and featured in a television show on Showtime simply called “Dexter.”
Some of the staff at The Gazette, myself included, are obsessed with “Dexter.” This serial killer, Dexter Morgan, played brilliantly by Brett Favre-look-alike Michael C. Hall, is a forensics blood expert for a police department in Florida.
As a child Dexter experienced an event that traumatized him, and his adoptive father taught him to use the bad thoughts controlling his mind that resulted from this event for good causes, like killing criminals who get away with murderous crimes.
This show is “CSI” meets “Silence of the Lambs” with a superhero character substituted for Hannibal Lector. The show, which is now entering its second season, is based on a novel by Jeff Lindsay.
Lindsay is a genius because he has created the world’s first nearly-lovable “good guy” serial killer. Many of us may have loved Lector, but he’s still a bad guy who kills mainly for pleasure.
Dexter, who is very emotionally different from you and I, does so to satisfy a mind-controlling hunger that isn’t satisfied until he’s put the kibosh on somebody. It may be completely wrong, but viewers (this includes all of The Gazette staff that watches the show) cheer for Dexter to succeed and avoid getting caught.
The funny thing is I don’t believe in capital punishment. The system is flawed enough that innocent people have been put to death for crimes that they did not commit. And that’s wrong. If the flaws in the system were corrected to ensure only guilty people were put to death, then maybe I could get behind it, but I don’t see that ever happening.
I don’t have a problem cheering for a fictional serial killer making the world a better, more just, place, though.
As a member of the Miami police force, Dexter has inside information on all the crimes committed there, including his own. He uses that information to determine who may or may not have committed a murder, and then he acts accordingly. If a murderer is going to get away or not be tried for a crime, then Dexter is going to get that person.
The show depicts Dexter’s killings, but it’s done fairly tastefully. It’s certainly no worse than most R-rated movies, and if you turn your head you won’t miss any major plot points.
“Dexter,” even though it’s probably less grisly than most of the stuff on the networks, would never be tolerated on regular television. All of the network dramas, like “ER,” “Criminal Minds” and the dozen “CSI” shows, are far more graphic than “Dexter.” The 10 p.m. news is even worse, since they deal with real murderers, rapists, felons and politicians, leaving little room for good news.
Regular channels wouldn’t want this show because they wouldn’t want to deal with the controversy that would arise from featuring a sympathetic serial killer. But Showtime can get away with it because they are a pay channel.
I don’t pay for Showtime, having just recently gotten cable back after going a whole summer without it (I’m sure I didn’t miss a thing). I bought the first season after one of my co-workers at The Gazette gave me an episode to watch that he had taped. I was hooked that quickly and so was my wife and three other people at The Gazette.
The second season just started, and fortunately I was able to see the first episode because Showtime had a free preview weekend recently. But now I have to wait until the second season comes out on DVD, probably next summer.
It’s enough to give a person an urge to do something wrong in order to see it. Just kidding. I hate liking a serial killer, so I won’t be a Dexter.
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette in October 2007.
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